Olena Vietrova
featured on the cover of the 2014-2015 Jewelry Maker's Catalog of Best Sellers |
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Meet the Designer-Artist
Olena Vietrova, from Kiev, Ukraine, has long loved different kinds of art forms and handicrafts, including clothes design, embroidery, knitting, crocheting, fabric painting and creating appliques using leather, fabric and other materials.
She decided she wanted to learn everything she could, study new forms and share them with others--so she began teaching handcrafting techniques in Kiev. Since 2006, she's worked as an editor for Fashion Magazine, where she creates templates and writes instructions published in Russian and English for the designs each issue. English versions of these instructions are available for free at www.firemtn.com/ukraine
That's how she discovered she liked seeing and wearing beaded jewelry, yet she hadn't mastered the art form on her own, so she made her first necklace.
Then Fashion Magazine started publishing only seed bead projects and her job got even more intense. Jewelry created using seed bead techniques are often complicated and she needed to know more to double check the patterns and instructions. Over time, her expertise in seed bead techniques grew and grew. Suddenly, she realized she was making her own pieces using the knowledge she'd gained from understanding the work of other jewelry makers.
She found herself making her own intricate beaded jewelry and exhibiting it at Fashion Magazine's international "Golden Hands of Masters" show, alongside some of the artists she had originally learned from.
"Creativity helps us to live, makes lives brighter and happier," Olena says, "and helps us to forget everything unpleasant." The joy of creation fills Olena's work with love and spirit. She wouldn't ask for anything less. |